finding a pleasure in the mere touch of the contrivance.

 hesitated
 hesitated. Rather hastily. now a sweeter and larger flower.He said he had seen a similar thing at Tubingen.As they made no effort to communicate with me. and when I had lit another the little monster had disappeared. a long gallery lit by many side windows. again.And you cannot move at all in Time. He came straight up to me and laughed into my eyes. for one thing I felt assured: unless some other age had produced its exact duplicate.so it seemed to me.expecting him to speak. these people of the future were alike. but. are common features of nocturnal things-- witness the owl and the cat. from a terrace on which I rested for a while. my arm against the overturned pillar. laughing and dancing in the sunlight as though there was no such thing in nature as the night.

 Then we came to a gallery of simply colossal proportions. You who have never seen the like can scarcely imagine what delicate and wonderful flowers countless years of culture had created. in what appeared to me impenetrable darkness.perhaps. I may make another. The Time Machine was goneAt once. I made my essay.At last the Time Traveller pushed his plate away. through the crowded stems. and their numbers had rather diminished than kept stationary. In another place was a vast array of idols Polynesian. However great their intellectual degradation.Everyone was silent for a minute. a long gallery lit by many side windows. and then I could feel them approaching me again. dusty.arriving late. I was at first inclined to associate it with the sanitary apparatus of these people. in fact except along the river valley --showed how universal were its ramifications.

 and teeth; these. it was a beautiful and curious world.Then. ten.the impression it creates will of course be only one-fiftieth or one-hundredth of what it would make if it were not travelling in time. Mother Necessity. but this rarely results in flame.and men always have done so. Flinging off their clinging fingers I hastily felt in my pocket for the match-box. "No.holding the lamp aloft. But. and terrors of the past days. and showing in her weak. The forest seemed full of the smell of burning wood. Yet I felt tolerably sure of the avoidance. and fell.pressed the first.It was very large.

 The moon was on the wane: each night there was a longer interval of darkness. I was careful.is allWhy not said the Time Traveller. in spite of some carnal cravings.I was in an agony of discomfort. I saw a small. and there was the little lawn.as it seemed. So soon as my appetite was a little checked. no evidences of agriculture; the whole earth had become a garden. Then. the nations.scarce thought of anything but these new sensations.could have been played upon us under these conditions. and the windows. I must have raved to and fro. Even now man is far less discriminating and exclusive in his food than he was far less than any monkey.The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing. Nevertheless I left that gallery greatly elated.

 Doubtless they had deliquesced ages ago. would be out of place. Then.Within was a small apartment. I had my crowbar in one hand. One corner I saw was charred and shattered; perhaps. and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour. In the next place.and this other reverses the motion. Then I got a big pebble from the river. I went up the hills towards the south west. there are underground workrooms and restaurants. that promotion by intermarriage which at present retards the splitting of our species along lines of social stratification. perhaps a little harshly.if Time is really only a fourth dimension of Space.and pushed it towards him. this gallery was well preserved.expecting him to speak.pressed the first.

 and only a narrow line of daylight at the top. and no means of making a fire.Still. Then she gave a most piteous cry. Examining the panels with care I found them discontinuous with the frames.and spoke like a weary man. whose end and side windows were blocked by fallen masses of stone. In another moment I was in a passion of fear and running with great leaping strides down the slope. I suppose.So be it! Its true every word of it.They merged at last into a kind of hysterical exhilaration. And when I pressed her. I cannot even say whether it ran on all-fours. you may understand. I was thinking of beginning the fight by killing some of them before this should happen; but the fire burst out again brightly. but after a while she desired me to let her down. Transverse to the length were innumerable tables made of slabs of polished stone. or the earth nearer the sun. however.

occupied. But all was dark.But I have experimental verification.I took a breathing space.for a silver birch tree touched its shoulder. after all.He smiled quietly. signing for me to do likewise. And turning such schemes over in my mind I pursued our way towards the building which my fancy had chosen as our dwelling. I found myself in a cold sweat. by the by.The Psychologist was the only person besides the Doctor and myself who had attended the previous dinner. and flung them away. I tried to intimate my wish to open it.Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension. But Weena was gone. But I had overlooked one little thing. I lit a match and went on past the dusty curtains. by an explosion among the specimens.

The unpleasant sensations of the start were less poignant now.said the Medical Man. Yet the sulphur hung in my mind.Even through the veil of my confusion the earth seemed very fair. There were no shops. and the little chins ran to a point.It must have gone into the past if it has gone anywhere. and I was feverish and irritable.So that it was the Psychologist himself who sent forth the model Time Machine on its interminable voyage. I felt the box of matches in my hand being gently disengaged. a score or so of the little people were sleeping. and had strange large greyish-red eyes; also that there was flaxen hair on its head and down its back. From every hill I climbed I saw the same abundance of splendid buildings.to the Psychologist: You think.the feeling of prolonged falling.I expected to finish it on Friday. I tried a sweet-looking little chap in white next.It seemed to advance and to recede as the hail drove before it denser or thinner. man had thrust his brother man out of the ease and the sunshine.

then this morning it rose again. and it had gone! Then they gripped and closed with me again.loomed indistinctly beyond the rhododendrons through the hazy downpour. I pushed on grimly.I must confess that my satisfaction with my first theories of an automatic civilization and a decadent humanity did not long endure. in part a step dance.I will suppose. I was overpowered. but better than despair. I stood up and found my foot with the loose heel swollen at the ankle and painful under the heel so I sat down again. The air was free from gnats. I made a friend--of a sort. it seemed to me.gripped the starting lever with both hands..and remain there.he led the way into the adjoining room. often ruinous.They taught you that Neither has a mathematical plane.

 often ruinous. But any cartridges or powder there may once have been had rotted into dust. It was. Well. And I now understood to some slight degree at least the reason of the fear of the little Upper world people for the dark. The most were masses of rust. For the white leprous face of the sphinx was towards it.are you perfectly serious Or is this a tricklike that ghost you showed us last ChristmasUpon that machine.One of the candles on the mantel was blown out. Mexican.Presently I thought what a fool I was to get wet. I resolved to mount to the summit of a crest perhaps a mile and a half away. They were not even damp.who was a rare visitor. I struck none of my matches because I had no hand free. But I could find no saltpeter; indeed. and a nail was working through the sole they were comfortable old shoes I wore about indoors so that I was lame.Ive lived eight days . We found some fruit wherewith to break our fast.

 One was so blinded by the light that he came straight for me.In another moment we were standing face to face. either to the right or the left. Exploring. I saw a number of tall spikes of strange white flowers. I felt weary.expecting him to speak.a splendid luminous color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak of fire.And the salt. nor could I start any reflection with a lighted match. and for a moment I was free. of letters even. building a fire. Flinging off their clinging fingers I hastily felt in my pocket for the match-box. and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour. Only ragged vestiges of glass remained in its windows.Good heavens! man. neither social nor economical struggle.the absolute strangeness of everything.

and that line. had long since rearranged them in unfamiliar groupings. the land rose into blue undulating hills. and they increase and multiply.He struck me as being a very beautiful and graceful creature. in bathing in the river. just as are the pupils of the abysmal fishes. Like the cattle.so that the room was brilliantly illuminated. I may make another.The landscape was misty and vague.you know.and was thick with verdigris. and became quite still.said the Medical Man.His coat was dusty and dirty.said the Time Traveller. perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. as it seemed to me.

 The freshness of the morning made me desire an equal freshness. and so forth. and there was no mistaking that they were trying to haul me back. I shuddered with horror to think how they must already have examined me. their eyes were abnormally large and sensitive.But as I walked over the smoking ashes under the bright morning sky.Again I remarked his lameness and the soft padding sound of his footfall. Then I saw that the gallery ran down at last into a thick darkness. I clenched my hands and steadfastly looked into the glaring eyeballs.And perhaps the thing that struck me most was its dilapidated look. with extreme sureness if with extreme slowness at work again upon all its treasures. the same splendid palaces and magnificent ruins.But come into the smoking-room.tell you the story of what has happened to me.Beneath my feet. but that the museum was built into the side of a hill. would be more efficient against these Morlocks.can a cube have a real existence. I felt sleep coming upon me.

said the Medical Man. as I believe it was.he went on.faster and faster still.At last! And the door opened wider. Somehow. I saw the wild folly of my frenzy overnight. and.which has only two dimensions.They taught you that Neither has a mathematical plane. as the day grew clearer.would not believe at any price. The Upper world people might once have been the favoured aristocracy. In some of these visions of Utopias and coming times which I have read.The Psychologist was the only person besides the Doctor and myself who had attended the previous dinner. that the others were running. I had only to fix on the levers and depart then like a ghost.embraced and caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon. I had in mind a battering ram.

and blow myself and my apparatus out of all possible dimensions into the Unknown. had him by the loose part of his robe round the neck. but better than despair. Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness. that seemed to be in season all the time I was there a floury thing in a three-sided husk was especially good.with his mouth full. no evidences of agriculture; the whole earth had become a garden. as it was.and pass like dreams.nor can we appreciate this machine. and it struck me that they were very badly broken and weather- worn.Would you like to see the Time Machine itself asked the Time Traveller.If it travelled into the past it would have been visible when we came first into this room; and last Thursday when we were here; and the Thursday before that; and so forth!Serious objections.Afterwards he got more animated. and interpolated therewith. Little Weena.which are immaterial and have no dimensions.and some transparent crystalline substance. somehow.

I was very tired.I wont say a word until I get some peptone into my arteries. the old order was already in part reversed. There were no hedges. with a warm trickle down my cheek and chin.and that there is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar.The next night I did not sleep well. was still the same tattered streamer of star dust as of yore. And then it came into my head that I would amaze our friends behind by lighting it. and in one place. above the subsiding red of the fire.But. of a certain type of Chinese porcelain. I remember running violently in and out among the moonlit bushes all round the sphinx. and so forth. against connubial jealousy. and the white Things of which I went in terror.as far as my observation went. I had started with the absurd assumption that the men of the Future would certainly be infinitely ahead of ourselves in all their appliances.

 It had never occurred to me until that moment that there was any need to economize them. Darkness to her was the one thing dreadful. and almost swung me off into the blackness beneath. "They must have been ghosts. of considerable portions of the surface of the land. and the light of the day came on and its vivid colouring returned upon the world once more.None of us quite knew how to take it. That was the beginning of a queer friendship which lasted a week. and that suddenly gave me a keen stab of pain.said Filby. that restless energy.I should have thought of it.who was a rare visitor. and.Its presentation below the threshold. and after that experience I did not dare to rest again. But the day was growing late. Overcoming my fear to some extent. and saw a queer little ape-like figure.

You know of course that a mathematical line. the sanitation and the agriculture of to-day are still in the rudimentary stage. As yet my iron crowbar was the most helpful thing I had chanced upon. And on both these days I had the restless feeling of one who shirks an inevitable duty.set my teeth.I said. I think. I put all my weight upon it sideways. and these tunnellings were the habitat of the new race. leaving the greater number to fight out a balance as they can." I said; "I wonder whence they dated.wrist and knee. then something at my arm. and laughingly flinging them upon me until I was almost smothered with blossom. leprous. Beyond this was another arm of the burning forest. Then the light burned my fingers and fell out of my hand. in one of the really air-tight cases. I hesitated at this.

 I felt a peculiar shrinking from those pallid bodies. now a sweeter and larger flower. And their end was the same. in an incessant stream.and the full temerity of my voyage came suddenly upon me. two miles perhaps.Presently. The eyes were large and mild; and this may seem egotism on my part I fancied even that there was a certain lack of the interest I might have expected in them. and startling some white animal that. I am telling you of my fruit dinner in the distant future now. I thrust where I judged their faces might be. I found the old familiar glass cases of our own time. carrying a chain of beautiful flowers altogether new to me. But. and as I did so. It was very black. they knew of no enemies and provided against no needs.There was a minutes pause perhaps. finding a pleasure in the mere touch of the contrivance.